April 30 is the polling day for the 15th Loksabha in Kishanganj district of Bihar. Election fever has enveloped the every nook and corner of the district. Political leaders and their supporters are trying various moves to woe the voters. Development, education, employment, etc. are the key issues that are raised by political leaders and they promise to work on these areas if win. Meanwhile, few candidates have violated election model code and had been framed by the district authority.
This time 15 candidates are contesting election from Kishanganj that include 7 independent candidates. Union State Minister Mohd. Taslimuddin is the candidate of RJD, while Maulana Asrarul Haq Qasmi is contesting election with Congress ticket. Syed Mahmood Ashraf (JDU), Zubair Alam (BSP), Tajammul Ali (BJJD), Mohd Khashiur Rahman (SJP), Mohd Nisar Alam (JMM) and Ranjit Poddar (ABAS) are other candidates contesting election with tickets of registered political parties.
Independent candidates include Abdul Razzaq alias Kal, Abhinav Modi, Asghar Malik, Chhote Lal Mahto, Mohd. Taslimuddin, Vishwanath Kejriwal and Sikander Singh. However, the main battle is between RJD’s Mohd Taslimuddin and Congress candidate Maulana Asrarul Haq Qasmi.
In 2009 there are 11, 85, 718 valid voters in Kishanganj district that include 561429 women voters.
Interestingly the result of Loksabha elections in Kishanganj depends on women voters. This is because of the fact that a major section of male voters are residing in various parts of the country and abroad. Kishanganj is an economically backward district and lack of employment opportunities has caused migration of lower class people. But most of the migrated lower class people have their families in Kishanganj. So, the women are making a huge number for voting.
At the same time, youth voters are also going to make a difference in Kishanganj Loksabha election. There are 286000 youth voters in Kishanganj including 11332 voters from the age group of 18 to 19 and 206785 voters between 20 and 29 year. Hence youth voters of Kishanganj can change the course of election in any direction.
For a better understanding let us have a look on the results of the 13th Lok Sabha elections (1999) when Maulana Asrarul Haque and Mohd Taslimuddin were face to face. In 1999 Maulana Asrarul Haque fetched 1,97, 478 votes, while Mohd. Taslimuddin got 2,49, 387 votes. But BJP’s Syed Shahnawaz Hussain won the election with 2,58, 035 votes. The above figures suggest that the number of votes received by the three major contenders were less than the number of youth voters in 2009.
In addition to Maulana Asrarul Haque and Mohd. Taslimuddin, Syed Mahmood Ashraf will also get good number of votes. So, this time again the major number of votes will be shared by these three leaders. Now coming to the point, if any one of these three leaders gets success in winning the faith of youth voters he will emerge victorious.
But, one interesting fact is that all the three leaders are above 50 year old, which is not new in Indian politics. We are developing in every field and going neck-to-neck with developing countries. Despite such growth, youths have no choice and are bounded to select yesteryear leaders like L.K.Advani and Manmohan Singh.
Of course, youth voters make a huge percentage in Kishanganj, but they have to choose from age old leaders. It would be not fair to say 66 year old Mohd. Tasliumuddin an old leader, because he is 10 years younger than independent candidate Vishwanath Kejriwal (76 year old). At last we can say, everything is possible in Indian politics, it depends on youths how they utilise their minds and select the good representative.
informative blog
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